Operation Nifty Package was a United States Delta Force and Navy SEAL-operated plan conducted in 1989 designed to capture the de facto ruler of Panama Manuel Noriega who ruled through puppet presidents. When Noriega took refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See (diplomatic quarter), deafening music and other psychological warfare tactics were used to convince him to exit and surrender himself.
The United States claimed that after ten days of psychological harassment, the Papal Nuncio (ambassador) Monsignor Laboa had threatened to revoke Noriega's sanctuary if he didn't surrender to the United States, although Laboa insisted that he had made no threats of revoking the right of asylum under the Church, but had used his own "precisely calibrated psychological campaign" to force Noriega's departure.
Although the operation was successful, Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor, would later point to the psychological harassment of the Papal Nuncio as "a low moment in U.S. Army history", noting that their approach had been silly, reproachable, and undignified.
Military operation
thumb|left|Manuel Noriega's disabled [[Learjet 35|Learjet 35A jet]]
Launched in the starting hours of Operation Just Cause, this operation was handled by SEAL Team4. Consisting of 48U.S. Navy SEALs (three SEAL Platoons; Golf, Bravo, and Delta) under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Toohey (executive officer of Team4 and former SEAL TeamSix officer), this team was tasked with destroying Noriega's private jet (a 1980 Learjet 35 registered N930GL; serial 35A-330) on the ground at the Punta Paitilla Airport, a coastal airport in Panama City. The main force of SEALs landed just south of the airport at approximately 0030, shortly before the initial combat operations started within Panama City itself. Several reconnaissance teams were hidden on the north side of the airfield to provide real-time data on enemy movements. Once the SEALs landed, established a command post near the southern edge of the runway. At this time Cmdr.McGrath, a SEAL officer stationed on a patrol boat offshore coordinating several operations, passed on information implying that the aircraft was to be disabled with "minimal damage" (defined as shot out tires and cut control wires), rather than destroyed.
During the Paitilla Airfield operation, another Navy SEAL group from SEAL Team 2, consisting of four divers and men on Zodiac inflatable boats, was assigned to conduct a combat swimmer attack and sabotage Noriega's heavily armed gunboat, Presidente Porras, a aluminum gunboat built in 1982 in Louisiana by Swiftships, while it was tied to a pier on the canal. The plan called for the divers (Lieutenant Edward Coughlin, Chief Electronics Technician Randy Beausoleil, Engineman 3rd Class Timothy K. Eppley, and Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Christopher Dye) to plant explosives on the bottom of the boat, using Dräger rebreathers, which do not give off exhalation bubbles, for added secrecy. The divers were transported by several combat rubber raiding craft to an insertion point located in a grove of mangrove trees roughly away from the target.
Noriega fled to the Apostolic Nunciature, the de facto embassy of the Holy See, and took refuge there with four others: Lieutenant Colonel Nivaldo Madrinan, head of Panama's secret police; Captain Eliecer Gaitan, who led the special force charged with protecting Noriega; Belgica de Castillo, the former head of the immigration department; and her husband Carlos Castillo. He turned over the majority of his weapons, and requested sanctuary within.
The U.S. Army turned to psychological warfare, blaring disturbing chicken noises at "deafening levels", gunning the engines of armored vehicles against the Nunciature's fence, and setting fire to a neighboring field and bulldozing it to create a "helicopter landing zone". Reportedly the version of the song "I Fought the Law" performed by The Clash was played repeatedly along with "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses; other songs in the line-up were "Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll" by Jethro Tull, "Panama" by Van Halen, and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
On 27 December, the psychological warfare was turned over to the control of the 4th Psychological Operations Group of Special Operations Command.
Noriega asked permission to phone his wife and three daughters, who had taken refuge in the Cuban embassy. He was assured that they would be flown to exile in the Dominican Republic if he surrendered. That day, he dressed in his tan uniform, receiving permission to bring the Nuncio's Bible with him, and went outside into the dark night with three priests who walked with him the fifty paces to the front gate; when he reached the front gate, an American paratrooper named Sgt. Scott Geist confronted Noriega and described him as "a broken man".
See also
- Manhunt (military)
- Death of Pablo Escobar
- Capture of Saddam Hussein
- Capture of Abimael Guzmán
- Capture of Nicolas Maduro